That champion of straight-shooting on behalf of the consumer, Choice magazine, is a bit slow when it comes to correcting its own errors. The magazine of the Australian Consumers Association is confused by the difference between insurance agents and brokers.

In an article on its website headlined “Insurance Brokers – are you really covered?”, Choice discusses the actions of a particular insurance agent which didn’t pass on premiums, but then attributes the actions to insurance brokers.

The article includes the comment: “Insurance brokers are meant to make life easier for you when dealing with insurance companies, but how do you know the premiums you pay them are actually being passed on to the insurance company? Are you really covered?”

One observant broker picked up the February 2001 online article and wrote to Choice about the misleading and confusing comments in the article. A Choice spokesman replied on May 21: “We are aware of the distinction between insurance agents and brokers and agree that our article could have been clearer about this. We also agree that the article is outdated and have removed it from our site.”

Yeah, right. It was still there this morning, in all its inaccurate glory, when Sunrise Exchange News checked.